“They used to call it Kalifornya, but now they called it Dregs.”
When a book is literally described as “Romeo & Juliet meets Mad Max meets X-Men, with a little bit of Blade Runner cheering from the sidelines”, you can be a little hesitant as to what you can expect. Either it’s a huge oversell by the publishing company, or somehow the author has a genius mind to be able to pull all those elements together to make it work. After reading this book, it seems Australian author Jay Kristoff has been blessed with a gift.
LIFEL1K3 is set in a post-apocalyptic USA and after an uprising, the robotic populace has been reduced to mere slaves and androids have been outlawed. Our main protagonist is seventeen-year-old Eve who builds robotic gladiators so she can earn credits to help her sick Grandpa, who is her last remaining family member. Unfortunately things go downhill pretty quickly for our girl when her gladiator is destroyed and almost winds up being killed herself—except she manages to stop the looming robot with the power of her mind and a raging scream…
Due to the fight being so public, her newly found ability is revealed to all and now the puritanical organisation known as the Brotherhood are after her because of her abnormality, just like they have done with all the others they killed before her. But why should the drama stop there? On her way home with her little AI robot Cricket and best gal pal Lemon Fresh, they discover an android boy within the wreckage of a recently crashed plane. Taking him home for parts, Eve doesn’t expect Ezekiel, the android boy, to get up and walking again. She also doesn’t expect him to recognise her or the onslaught of people after her because of the lifelike and her strange new power…
And so a series of events unfolds that hooks you in from the get-go with its chaos, robots, epic car chases, romance, friendship, and pure badassery.
The characters are incredibly enjoyable with just the right amount of attention, background, and detail given to each of them over the course of the book. That being said, Eve is quite the multi-faceted character, which may be a little frustrating for some since her character is pushed and pulled in so many ways that she’s always confused as to who she is and who she should be.
Then there’s her best friend Lemon Fresh. She’s yet another strong female character that doesn’t rely on our main protagonist and can instead hold her own. Her character isn’t sidelined like the typical best friend characters in books, and it seems that she will be explored further in the following books.
Joining the girls are Kaiser, who is a fierce and protective robotic dog, and a hilarious AI robot by the name of Cricket who will go ballistic if he ever gets called little. Surprisingly, these two were interesting characters and even though Kaiser doesn’t speak, his actions when it comes to Eve and Lemon are sweet. Cricket on the other hand has plenty to say and he’s the wittiest robot I have ever come across, and although his quite literally programmed to help and protect Eve, their relationship is something I didn’t expect myself to enjoy as much as I did.
As for our android boy named Ezekiel, he is what is known as a lifelike. Lifelike’s were made by Gnosis, an organisation created by Nicholas Monrova who essentially referred to them as his children. Monrova copied the personalities of those he loved to create the lifelike’s, so hopefully, they would love, protect, and serve him in return. Unfortunately a virus was purposely injected into the lifelike’s to free them of the three laws of robotics:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the first law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Instead, they eventually had their own thoughts on these: Your body is not your own. Your mind is not your own. Your life is not your own. After being set free from the laws, the lifelike’s rose up to destroy Gnosis and the Monrova family. Now, a few years down the track, BioMaas and Daedalus Technology circle one another in order to become the top tech dog.
Now that’s all we can cover without giving anything away!
When it comes to the writing, it might throw you at first. I haven’t read anything by Kristoff before other than the Illuminae series he co-wrote with Amie Kaufman, but the slang that was used was a slight deterrent for me at first. That being said, the flashbacks were a great reprieve from this and it did ease off substantially after the first few chapters, so I implore you to keep at it. Once you hit one of the twists Kristoff throws at you, it will propel you to stay up all night reading.
If you’re after an action-packed adventure that will take you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions by filling your heart with love for the story and characters and then ripping it out at the last page, then LIFEL1K3 is the book for you!
Find LIFEL1K3 at Book Depository, Amazon, and other book retailers. Thanks to Allen and Unwin for providing The Nerd Daily with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Will you be checking out Lifel1k3? Or have you already read it? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.
Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.
But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.
Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.
